Kawainui – September 1, 2013

The hype of Kawainui came and went today, it did not disappoint. One of the gems of the Ko’olaus, Kawainui features this big swimming hole, in what people call the best swimming hole on the island.

I joined the HTMC as they did their bi-annual hike of Kawainui. I saw some familiar faces including Caveman, Nate, J and OAG’s – The Judge, DJ, Sensei, and E. I also met Burs who usually hikes with OAG members.

We met at Haleiwa Beach Park at 8:15am. From there we carpooled to the Kawailoa Farm, entered the gate, and drove about 6 miles to the trailhead going through 2 locked gates in the process.

We started going uphill on a graded trail that was built on the side of the mountain. Below us was Kawainui stream and a 100 foot drop.  E led us on a side trail to a tunnel and a flume. I assumed it was used for sugar cane back in the day. We got back onto the main trail. There, we passed along a ton of ginger, strawberry guava, regular guava, ti trees, and mountain apple trees. You won’t starve on this section of the hike.  

The trail eventually led down to a dam. The water was crystal clear. As we hiked further, we crossed the stream about 10x before reaching our destination at the HTMC picnic spot. We were the last ones to arrive. About 25 people were there swimming in the pool or eating lunch. As mentioned, the pool is huge. But to get to the waterfall, we had to swim. E inflated his tube. I put my SL1 camera in his dry bag and he tubed it towards the waterfall. I usually don’t swim on hikes, but couldn’t pass this opportunity up. I swam about 125 feet reaching some rocks. I held onto the rocks, so I could catch my breath. The rock walls started to narrow to about 10 feet wide. I went up a little further towards the waterfall. The waterfall albeit only 8 feet high was two tiered and spilled with some ferocity. I took my SL1 out of Erik’s dry bag and shot away trying to get some silk. Many came out, but some were washed out by the strong sunlight beaming on us. 

After 45 minutes of clowning around, we swam back to the HTMC picnic spot. Nearly everyone left going back to the trailhead. Heading back was fast. I got preoccupied taking pictures and went at a slow pace. A little over an hour and I got to the cars.

We drove back to Haleiwa Beach Park where we rendezvous with Proo who was studying at Starbucks before meeting us at the park. After a short discussion, we decided the Post Hike Meal (PHM) would be at Paala Kai Bakery. When we got there, we found out that they stopped making bentos, so we had to grab whatever was left. There was a lot of chicken, so all of us bought the chicken and rice. Their chicken was so good, the salt on the skin made it tasty. Then we went to this ice cream place next door. The ice cream was awesome. I got coffee flavor, but the green tea also looked yummy.

Today was a great day of hiking. I would definitely go back.